


Light Up the Deep

by Niji_Hitomi_Iscariot, Silver_Eternity



Category: One Piece
Genre: Bulges and Nooks, Egg Laying, Kinky, Law is a lionfish, Merfolk AU, Other, Oviposition, PWP, Sanji is a Gulper Eel, Sort Of, brood pouch, carrier and sire do not equal male and female, gender is a social construct, merfolk just like the sound of human pronouns okay, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 11:52:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14135505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niji_Hitomi_Iscariot/pseuds/Niji_Hitomi_Iscariot, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silver_Eternity/pseuds/Silver_Eternity
Summary: After being chased off the reef, Law finds himself literally caught in the coils of a deepdweller who lives by the rule of 'take what you want, give nothing back'.





	Light Up the Deep

**Author's Note:**

> I know this looks like dubious consent, I promise it's not! There will be VERY enthusiastic yes's involved.
> 
> Also, we're playing a little fast and loose with fish anatomy literally for sex reasons. Shhhhhhhh! This was supposed to be a PWP!! Don't think too hard on it.

"What's a tasty little lionfish doing this far off the reef? Wander too far from the coral, sunfish?" 

The darkness of the trench below was only enhanced by the eel merman's bioluminescent stripes and lure. He circled the black and white other with a wicked smile, sharp teeth and the halo of pale blond hair on his head covered one reflective eye.

The lionfish threw out his barbs, whirling in sharp defense--slower and more cumbersome than any other time of year--and circling his long tail as his eyes narrowed to glowing golden slits. The patches of white on his dark skin were as bright as small suns. Bioluminescence triggered luminescence in others after all, and he was shining as hard as he could to keep track of the deadly depth dweller.

"Hardly. I am merely travelling through."

He'd been chased off his reef, more accurately, by a big, nasty catfish with a mouth so big even a poisonous mer wasn't willing to take any chances. Especially since, being of unusual coloring and one of the only Biolumes on the reef, there were no friends to come to his aid or help him defend his tiny patch of living space.

"Travelling? Without a school? Sounds like you're looking for trouble to me." The gulper eel flicked his lure. 

The long,  _ long _ , length of his tail was enough for two wide loops around the spines, and the filtered light shimmered around the hinge of his jaw, vaguely threatening. 

Could the lionfish poison him before he killed him? Hard to say, and the odds weren't good that the lionfish would come out of the altercation alive if he tried. Assuming of course lionfish poison would work on a deep sea dweller... there were rumors that they had immunities because of the  _ other _ nasty things that lived in the dark.

The lionfish showed his teeth, and his tongue was glowing; light shone between the cracks of his razor-toothed maw, highlighting each individual tooth.

"Do I LOOK like I'd travel with a school, darkdweller? I'm too poisonous and  _ violent _ to stand one." 

Another lie. No school would have an albino or strangely-colored anything. They were too big a target to afford to keep in the ranks of a school or pod; they'd attract predators for leagues. The fact that he’d been run off his own home during mating season only made him more foul-tempered and bitter about his lack of a choice.

"Hee hee hee." Drifting into his personal space with little care for the poison or the fangs, the eel smiled wider, "All the more reason to be wary out in open water, sunfish. Here there be monsters."

"Do you think they don't live in coral reefs?"

He was balling tighter, bristling as he wrapped his spines around himself. He didn't want to actually lash out--the eel was a lot more streamlined and was sure to be a much faster swimmer. And if he was immune to toxin his chances of puncturing a vital organ and successfully escaping were astronomically low.

The eel pushed in closer, crowding the lionfish, "Not like out here they don't. You're in over your head, sunfish, and it's a  _ long _ way back to the surface."

It was then that it became obvious what the deep merman had been doing with his lazy circles. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, they were sinking. Down into the depths, into the dark, where the lionfish's vision would be of no use to him, and all around the sounds of the trench began to filter into their awareness. Strange cries and the slither of scales against cold, cold rock. It was another world below where the sun could shine, and the way the eel moved... he was right at home.

Well, shit.

"Then why are you pulling me down? You've said it yourself, I don't belong here. That's why I'll just head up and be on my way," he said slowly, warily, eyes still slits.

He was glowing even brighter now--with fear. Chances were not looking good, any way he looked at it. Not big enough to defend his home, not poisonous enough to hold off a darkdweller, and now it was obvious he wasn't even bold enough to attempt escape. It all served only as a reminder that he wasn’t enough, never had been, never would be.

"Because." The eel got in close enough that his gills blew bubbles across the lionfish's. "You're pretty enough to keep. So I'm keeping you."

He blinked and his mouth dropped open, barbs drooping as he peered over his tail. His voice was absolutely  _ scandalized _ . "I beg your pardon?!"

"Do sunfish speak a different language? I said I'm. Keeping. You." He enunciated the last three words with a click of teeth and a curl of his tail around the lionfish, taking advantage of the drooping spines.

"That's what I thought you said! You can't possibly be serious! Only humans are that-- that--" he flailed to come up with a suitably disgusting and vulgar word. "For Poseidon's sake, I'm  _ defective _ !"

Shock, confusion, and the sheer incomprehensible outrage forced him out of his defensive ball. His tail, long and flared with dangerous grace, drifted into the curl of the deepdweller’s lure, and he felt his ears and cheeks puff up in indignation.

From the eel’s perspective, he was even more beautiful up close.

"You're exotic. That makes you  _ valuable _ ." The eel spun them, tugging them further down towards a dark hole in the side of the trench. At least he wasn't aiming for the bottom.

"Oof!" The tail around his own spun him, leaving him dizzy. "No, exotic is exotic and defective is defective, and I am the latter! Trust me, I would know!"

He was glowing as brightly as he ever had in the dim, now looking more lost and confused than scared.

"So you aren't poisonous and you don't normally live in the crevasses of a spiny coral?" The eel sounded very much like he didn't believe him.

"Actually I had to live in a stinging anemone for a few years when all the corals were taken by 'proper' lionfish. The clownfish don't like sharing but they also don't like being poisoned. But I'm the wrong color! It's kind of  _ obvious _ !"

"If the only thing 'wrong' with you is that you're this silver-white, abyss-black coloration..." The eel leered at him, "Then you're exotic, not defective."

The end of his tail curled over his stomach in a shy gesture. "Well… I may be defective in… other ways? I've never been able to find out for certain."

The eel grinned again, "All the better to play with you."

His ear fins flipped back, then forward again, then back as his tail fluttered wider, but he didn't seem to have a response for that. "Um. I don't suppose you'll only do it once, will you?"

"Not a chance, sunfish." And with that the eel merman tightened his coils and tugged in earnest, popping through the entrance of the cave. "Say goodbye to the surface."

"Not much point. Never liked it much up there in the first place. I get sunburned on my white scales and overheated on my black spots," he grumbled, flattening his spines so they didn't break when against the tunnel walls as he let the eel drag him.

He didn't see much point in struggling right now. He was tired, if the eel wanted to kill him there wasn't much he could do about it, and besides… if he doused his lights, maybe he could blend in down here...? No, that was stupid, he told himself. Even without the lights, anything adapted to live in the dark would see his white stripes a league and a half away.

The trip seemed to take hours. Deeper and darker into the rocks. The only breeze came from cross ventilation, shafts burrowed into the cave walls around them by other indigenous species of fish, or possibly even by the eel himself when he was younger and smaller. But for all that the cave was an eel hole, the sides of the tunnel barely brushed the lionfish's spines. It was easily wide enough for the eel to double back on himself, which he did several times to curl close to his captive.

Then, out of nowhere, the walls blew outward into a  _ huge _ cavern, lit up all around by glowing, orange, non-sentient fish clustering near the ceiling. Luminescent algae grew on the walls in pink and blue, and rugs of kelp, intricately woven, decorated the floor, giving the place a very homey, lived-in feel.

He blinked, sheltering his eyes from the light, almost blinding after such a long time in the dark of the tunnel after dimming his bioluminescence, and let himself float in the eel's grip, squinting around. It looked… it looked…

"This is nicer than the coral-homes of whole schools up there. You must be powerful, fast, and cunning to have amassed such a comfortable living space."

"The deep dark isn't about power, sunfish. Down here…"

The eel let him go and drifted over to a ledge of stone where a blown glass jar filled with colored stones housed a mossball, big and round, and remarkably bright green. He reached in and pet it, his claws flowing through the strands of moss with gentle appreciation. Amazingly the mossball bumped up into his hand like it knew him, and before he withdrew, he brushed his knuckles around the rim of the jar, lighting up sunflowers in warm, brilliant gold.

Then he turned back, and there was a sad resignation about his too-wide smile, "Down here you keep what you kill."

The lionfish’s whole body tilted to the side, almost rolling. "Doesn't… everyone? What you don't eat, you collect? Or are you talking something deeper?"

"Deeper, sunfish.  _ Much _ deeper." The eel merman snickered at his own joke, and drifted over to give the lionfish the same kind of caress he'd given the marimo. "But don't worry your pretty spines. You're safe here. I'll take care of you."

He rolled into the caress, letting it sweep from ribs down to tail tip in a slow, luxuriant movement. "Mmmmm. I suppose that's better than things have been up to this point. I don't suppose you have access to books, would you...?"

"Mostly cookbooks, but I have a few I've salvaged from the Dark King."

"If I have books to read, I can be happy. But who, or what, is the Dark King?"

"The Dark King rules the Abyss. It's by his word and whim that all of us are allowed to even swim."

"Oh. Is he… lenient?" Nice seemed too strong a descriptor for such a King.

The eel frowned in consideration. "I have never been to the bottom of the trench. So if I must be honest, I don't know personally." He blinked. "I don't even know if the Dark King still lives. As a fry, the Old Man told tales of the Dark King and his teeth. They say he has no luminescence and yet can still see to hunt. Shadows do his bidding, and his bite is so dangerous that even the Vampires want nothing to do with him."

"Well someone like that could certainly be immortal, and you would never want to upset an immortal," the lionfish said slowly. "Perhaps the best thing is to continue assuming he's alive, the deep is where he lives, and to pay respect to him."

"That tends to be the way of it."

"Better safe than eaten, yes?" He fluttered his tail again, turning in a lazy loop.

"Exactly."

Seeming to shake himself out of the memories of his past, the eel merman flicked his tail, sliding under the lionfish with a slip of smooth skin against scales. Then he came up between the rows of spines, and licked the edge of the black and white near his cervical gills.

"And not worth thinking about this far up." He purred, "so pretty."

His spines bristled and rattled in a full-body shudder as his back arched- obviously unused to being touched as his gills fluttered like seaweed. "Nnngh! I, ah, I know a few, lionfish, that would… disagree."

"They aren't here, and I am. And you are mine! So I get to say what you are and aren't." The eel licked up the side of his face, hands coming up to trace his thoracic gills and stomach.

The mer’s black-and-white body shuddered and twitched, not sure if it wanted more or less of the unfamiliar sensations. "I-I guess tha-ah-t's true!"

"So what d'they call you, sunfish?" 

The other used a tongue too long to be normal to pull the frill of one of the lionfish's ears into his mouth to nibble with razor sharp teeth. The gentleness of the motion made for a soft tickle with the threat of worse, yet somehow it was obvious the eel didn't want to hurt him. He'd had plenty of opportunity so far after all, and the only thing he'd done was get up close and personal. His hands wandered down to the lionfish's hips, teasing the powerful muscles there and rubbing gently under his pelvic fins.

The colorful tail began to curl around the eel, spines directed away from him, as his spots lit up again and his eyes started to glow, grinning as he turned to face the blond. "My name is Law. Trafalgar Law. And yours, handsome deep-dweller? Do tell."

"They call me Sanji, those that live to learn my name that is. Most fry aren't as pretty as you are though." A ripple of answering blue flickered down the deep sea dweller's back all the way to his lure, as he nuzzled up to purr at Law's jaw.

"Yes, well, you said it yourself… I'm exotic. I get to be the prettiest by that token. Which, Sanji, also means I GET the prettiest. Want to know something interesting about me?" He was winding further around him, twining with him, and grinning like crazy as his earfins fluttered.

"Hmm?" Feeling a bit dizzy, the eel found he was enjoying the tables being turned, and he let himself be directed until he was aligned under the lionfish, his hands on his hips and tail twined with the other's.

"I know everything there is to know about my biology. Including how to breed. I'm sort of a healer of merfolk. Which means if I can find your genitals… I can most certainly make this a most excellent experience for the both of us." His hands ran down Sanji's sides, carefully teasing past his gills.

The blue lit up bright pink, and the eel squirmed, blushing like crazy, "I-I... m-my mother was a seahorse."

And sure enough, now that they were belly to belly the slit of brood pouch was obvious, slightly puffy with arousal, and soft as moss against Law's scales. He gently ran his fingertips over the edges of the brood pouch, caressing gently, coaxing it loose enough to slip a finger in.

"That works out very well. I am an egg-layer, and possess an ovipositor. Quirk of genetics, but in this case, it suits us just fine. I take it you are looking to spawn this season or you wouldn't have been so… insistent on catching me?" 

Their tails slid against each other, scale on scale, as he kissed Sanji's shoulder.

"Yes!" The word came out more breathy than he had intended, Sanji’s gills fluttered with a hitch as the feeling of fingers in there sent ripples of pleasure spots over his bioluminescent stripes.

"That's just perfect, then..."

Law rubbed the growing bulge in his tail, just below his waist, against Sanji's brood pouch. He added another finger and began to gently stretch it open, preparing the alluring, hot, swollen brood pouch to receive him once he managed to unfurl.

The eel was again mouthing at the lionfish's jaw, and lined up groin to groin as they were, it became clear most of Sanji’s length was tail. He was actually several inches shorter than his mate-to-be. He slipped his hands between the deadly spines, moaning some and undulating his tail to press deeper, closer, to those talented fingers.

Probing deeper, Law groaned. He kissed and licked the skin behind Sanji’s earfin, and his own fins fluttered, though his spines stayed tucked safely flat. The bulge pushing up and out was fairly large; the lionfish’s inner egg chambers felt heavy and full. He could hardly wait to breed for real, and moved faster than he meant to as he rubbed the edges and inside of his mate’s pouch.

Within Sanji's pouch, the tentacle of his dick curled around Law's fingers, slick even in the water with mucus that would keep their brood safe inside him, and he moaned, hands coming up to grip Law's shoulders. His eyes flutttered shut, the lumescent stripes down his back--more obviously seahorse ridges from that angle--flickered pleasure and need in the language of the deep dark.

Law's own pattern flashed an answer, a yes--an excited yes!--instinctively, even as he slowly stroked that tentacle and brought one of Sanji's hands to his bulge.

"Press on the bottom of it," he murmured against his chin. "It takes pressure to pop free."

Wary of his claws, the eel merman pulled back a little to see what he was doing. He swallowed and flexed his hand, rubbing in a small circle with his palm, while the webbing of his fingers squeezed on both sides.

Exactly like they both wanted, the skin split open with the pressure and force, blood tinting the water. Out popped his flexible, slick tentacle ovipositor, the base already swollen with eggs that were ready to be laid. Law gripped tight to Sanji and moaned, breath stuttering, as it came free, wrapping its tip around Sanji's wrist, and his hips bucked for more stimulation.

"Oh~!" Want and desire flashed into the pleasured need from before, and Sanji pulled, gently, on the tube, using his other hand to massage the swollen bits, unconsciously staring.

The slit was right in the middle of one of his large white splotches, but the tentacle itself was black, and more and more uncoiled when Sanji pulled until it was longer than both of their forearms, built to reach around and past dangerous spines in order to reach a brood pouch. With Sanji that was unnecessary, but that didn't mean Sanji couldn't put it to use anyway. When he massaged near the egg lodged in the base, however, Law growled and bucked, the egg moving up his ovipositor.

A glint came to the eel's visible eye, and a ripple of sadistic intent flashed through his lights so fast it was impossible to catch. Instead of continuing to work that first egg up the tube, Sanji slipped both hands down to rub and press on the opening of Law's eggsac, trying to coax a second into the tube at the same time.

The tip moved, questing, and Law being wrist-deep in Sanji meant he had little recourse when another egg was forced into his dick. He writhed with the pressure, hissing curses into Sanji's skin as his body arched.

Sanji's hands moved at the same pace as his own tentacle, milking Law's fingers the same way it would his ovipositor when they finally got around to inserting it, and more of that cushioning mucus was leaking into his brood pouch, making the whole thing warmer. Chirring, the eel slithered closer, his hips against his own wrist, and bucking up into Law's hand.

Law growled, bucking back and squeezing his tail around Sanji's as he nipped his earfin. "My patience will grow short quickly, deep-dweller," he purred into his ear. "I've never bred before; I have  _ quite _ a store of eggs eager to fill that pouch of yours."

"You're the one w-i-i-ith the hand in the way, sunfish." Sanji shivered, a gush of mucus slipping through Law's fingers at the same time that he flexed his own hands, massaging both eggs further up the lionfish's ovipositor.

A third egg pushed at the base, and Law groaned as he carefully extracted his hand. "That, my eel mate, is very easily fixed, especially now you have a good cushion there for my eggs."

His eyes illuminated Sanji in gold as the tip of his ovipositor pressed to the opened brood pouch, and his spines flared in pleasure.

A water reverberating moan echoed from one side of the cavern to the other when Sanji slipped his hand from the coil of tube so he could take more of it inside him. He immediately placed it back at the base of Law's dick however, letting his pouch swallow the curling length all the way to the bottom, where his own tentacle gripped it. Mimicking the milking movements again, he turned his head to suck on a clear, white spot below Law's cervical gills, eyes closed, and pleasure-need flashing brighter through his scales.

While his cock was ruthlessly squeezed, Law squirmed against him, rumbling in his chest as the eggs were pushed further up his ovipositor and another egg was forced in at the bottom. The sheer pleasure left him biting possessively at Sanji's shoulder and his hips undulating to help Sanji milk him.

By the time the first egg dropped into his pouch, Sanji was panting, already squishy in the front and seed had begun to leak into the mucus to fertilize the eggs. He curled his body so that his chest rubbed against Law's, purring and moaning, his chin tucked carefully over the lionfish's shoulder because both of his hands were busy stimulating the length of ovipositor that didn't fit inside his pouch.

Law was panting back, but leaving bright red, possessive, marking bites between strokes of his hands over the mer's chest, his eggs coming in regular intervals now, especially as Sanji encouraged them. He was holding on tighter, grinding back harder, as his mouth fell open to get more water.

The process was agonizingly slow, and all too fast at the same time. With every egg added, Sanji felt fuller, heavier, stretched out, pushing forward from navel to cloaca, and yet there seemed to be no end to them. Rather than taut and defined around each sphere, his body flooded the spaces in between with mucus and semen. Every egg would be suspended in a gel of seed to be fertilized, and somewhere around halfway, the eel had to pull a hand away to rub down his own side. They would be gorgeous, he knew, but right now... ohhh it was pain and pleasure at the same time, and he clung to his mate, trembling with sensations coursing through his nearly over-sensitive body.

Law nuzzled into his temple, tender and sweet. "I know it does hurt. It will feel better shortly. When you're all full and your pouch has sealed, you'll be flooded with hormones and feel amazing. But I still have so many eggs left for you, Sanji… and I'll make sure you take them all."

A hard shiver, mixed with a flash of 'yes!', rippled down the eel's body, but all he could do in response was moan, curling as close as he could around the swell of their brood. Truthfully, a lot of those hormones were already beginning to flush his system, making the skin of his pouch sensitive and pleasurable to the touch, which he demonstrated by pulling Law's hand down to it. Because if Law was petting him, he could return to milking the lionfish for more. And by Poseidon he needed more!

He laughed, a guttural, breathy sound that ended in a cry when another egg was deposited, and he used the heel of his hand to massage and very lightly press the steadily swelling mass of eggs and fertile gel, their twined tails keeping them together as Law undulated his hips to encourage the eggs to keep coming out of the depths of his egg chambers. He was rather backed up with several years' worth of frustration, leaving more and more eggs to push out of his chambers each year. Previous, unsuccessful mating seasons meant his body attempted to fix his ‘repellent’ qualities by making him more fertile. Meaning, he had almost twice as many as any typical mer.

The thought occurred to him, he might even have to stop before they were empty, lest Sanji be unable to keep his pouch closed.

Seahorses, in their feral form, were designed to carry upwards of a thousand eggs. Merfolk could handle a quarter of that if they had to, due to eggs being typically larger. All it meant for Sanji, who was mixed breed, was that though he felt approximately like he was going to explode, his body was more than capable of sucking down the eggs. He'd lost count somewhere around twenty, when his mind washed away in the sensations of being  _ full _ .

Hands on his mate's groin, his face buried in the lionfish's neck, and his tail slipped as his body arched around the pouch. He breathed deeply, shivering with each new egg in a plateau of pleasure. "Nnnlaaaaw...."

He kissed and nipped below Sanji's ear, moaning back when yet another forced its' way into his ovipositor, and it was with fascination he watched his mate continue to swell.

"Ohhhh… Saaaanji," he groaned into his ear, softly, eyes fluttering as his tail held tighter, spines rattling in the water with the force of how much pleasure was leaving him utterly wrecked.

The bigger he got, the more Sanji leaned into Law to stay afloat. He hiccuped a little, and gasped when his belly brushed Law's.

"Still… a handful… left," he moaned, resisting the urge to pet that belly too much, now rubbing it to ease the pressure as his egg chambers neared empty at last. He had maybe six eggs left, and they were coming out slower and slower as he had to contort his body to coax the eggs from the furthest corners of his chambers and then squeeze them into his ovipositor.

At four left, Sanji whimpered, needing to grip Law's shoulders to stay upright. Three had him panting, eyes nearly closed, and his lights faded with exhaustion. The second to last nudged something that caused a cascade of movement through the brood until one of the eggs pushed up tight against the base of his dick. That made his eyes fly back open again and a needy moan had him digging his claws into Law's scales. 

Just... one... He needed it... so close... He whined, "Pleeeasssse…"

Law grunted, one hand massaging his own tail, coaxing the last egg, wiggling and twisting until it finally bulged up the bottom of his ovipositor and he clenched his muscles. Then he used his hand to squeeze it slowly down the tube, panting with excitement as he watched it go and growling with pleasure at the touch, and then… finally… that last egg popped out into Sanji's brood pouch with a rush of thick fluid that would seal the pouch shut.

Shudders wracked the eel's frame, the eggs shifting to empty his seminal gland into the amniotic gel. His eyes squeezed shut, a couple of tears leaking between his lashes, and he panted hard, both sets of his gills flaring with the effort. It was almost comical the way his pouch stuck out in front of him, swollen and heavy, so sensitive that even the current in the water made his breath hitch. He curled as close as he could get, the endorphins of the process numbing his mind to any pain it might cause. But he did sink, simply too tired to stay upright, clinging to his mate.

"Sooo.... mmmm... Law~" He purred.

The lionfish flicked his tail and brought them over to the bed of kelp, purring softly in the bottom of his chest. "Sanji… I didn't know a single mer could take that many eggs. Not even a seahorse-blooded one. You are  _ amazing _ ."

He laid him down, stroking softly and lovingly over that enormous pouch, his retracting ovipositor giving a little aroused twitch before disappearing into his body.

"Nnnothinnn' I can't do~"

The eel's tail curled up to double as a pillow, and his lure hung over a small hook above their heads. Around them the glowfish had burrowed into tiny cracks in the wall, dimming the light in the cavern. Sanji purred and hiccuped, burying his nose against Law's shoulder.

Law blanketed the longer form with his own, spreading the frills of his fins as far as they'd go and kissing his hair and his forehead. "So I see. Do you keep the eggs until hatching like seahorses or lay them after a while? Either way, I think it'll be a very…  _ fruitful _ brood," he hummed.

Sanji blushed from his nose to his lure, "I… actually don't know… I've never… um… this is my first brood too…"

Law kissed him gently. "Well then, it'll be an adventure to find out together. This year and every year after~"

Using his mate's own fin to hide his face, the eel blushed harder, "Yeah."

Law peeked under it, grinning at the eel. "I think I'm going to like being a deep-dweller, handsome eel. Who knew being exotic would work out so well?"

"Sunfish don't know how to look past appearances to the fish inside. The deep dark may be cold, but the Vampire always said that's why we're so warm." Sanji kissed his nose, flipping his own earfins.

His rattled--his version of a blush that reached his earfins as his smile turned into something goofy and happy. "I think I'll really love learning all the people who live down here. Every time I hear a capital name like that I want to know everything about what legends you know."

"The Vampire… he's huge! He lives almost as deep as the Dark King. They say when the trench was formed, the Vampire, the Dark King, and the Captain emerged from the darkness to chase away the Golden Buddha who lives in the sun, making the Abyss safe for all deep dwellers." The eel blushed again, rambling like a guppy, "Because our eyes, you know. It's... we can't have it too bright."

"Oh! I… I didn't actually. Up on the reef all we know of deepdwellers is fairy tales about endless teeth and see-through bodies. If your eyes are adapted for darkness, though… why on earth do some of you glow?" His tail drifted a bit as he tilted his head again.

"We aren't blind! Well… some of us. It's… for a lot of reasons. Communication, hunting…" Sanji flashed pink again, "mating."

Law flashed back; he wasn't sure his point got across properly, but it FELT like he was saying 'and what a mating indeed'. He hoped that was what he said. "It does come in handy."

The way Sanji smiled said that his message definitely got across. "Down here, there are a lot of dangers. Being able to communicate without sound sometimes means the difference between eating or being eaten. You have to have some deepdweller in you to flash like that. Do you know how you were spawned?"

He shook his head. "No clue at all. I woke up alone in a clownfish's anemone. I think I was the last to hatch, and I might have drifted in from a different nest. A very terrifying couple of surface-skimmers adopted me for a while, but once I started being poisonous they had to let me go. It would perhaps explain where I get my coloration from."

"I think you're beautiful. It's why I took you." He looked away, "You... can leave if you want to. I know that isn't how sunfish mate."

He settled in further, very deliberately draping himself over his mate. "Perhaps not how sunfish mate… but I'm only part sunfish, now aren't I? Besides, this is actually the traditional way deepdwellers pick mates? Is it the courtship as well? This is just  _ fascinating. _ Tell me everything." His eyes sparkled with a curious glow.

“Deepdwellers sort of… just take. We find a mate we like, take them home, and… well… heh heh." The eel hybrid rested both hands on his swollen pouch, purring unconsciously at his own touch. "It not usually so obvious though, and not many deepdwellers are carriers. But… the Old Man stayed with his mate until she was eaten, so… there's some loyalty at least. I've… never been as drawn to anyone else though."

Law’s tail swished back and forth. "Very interesting. Good thing to know about the culture down here, at least. But I… drew you?"

His fins fluttered as his stripes flashed embarrassed pride, which he tried to quash and failed.

"It's something  _ Maman _ taught me. There's a draw to the one you're going to mate. You see them and that's it, there's nothing you can do. You have to take them." Sanji smiled, looking off to the side. "It's what she did to the Old Man."

He nuzzled up into the space under Sanji's jaw and gently blew water over his neck gills. "Well I think it worked. I am well and thoroughly caught… and have no desire to leave, either."

At that the eel made a noise he would never admit to having made, ever, and snuggled into the lionfish's fins. Law kissed him again and settled in to get some rest. "Good sleep, Sanji."

~*~

“So, there’s a new current in the reef.” The slide of scales and rough skin almost covered the mer’s humor. “A certain spawn of yours has found himself a mate.”

A rippling of black and pink in no way hid the lazy roll of sunset-colored eyes. “You say that as if he did any of the chasing. He was merely the prey, in a certain someone else’s hunt.”

“Being prey is a noble thing down here, birdy. You have to be flashy enough to catch someone’s attention first.” His tone was none-too-subtle, flicking the seaweed paper between them deliberately.

A snort vibrated the water. “As if he could have ever settled for a sunfish mate. He  _ glows _ , if you hadn’t noticed. We even managed to teach him Deepspeak without him realizing.”

“My point still swims. He’s holed up with my brother in the Upper Hadal, in that  _ cave _ the idiot left him.” Sharp teeth almost betrayed his affection, but decades of bonded co-habitation meant that any irritation the great Moray actually felt was obviously directed at the so-called idiot, rather than his mate.

“Mmm. That’s because the idiot somehow knew something was going to happen and moved your brother in before it did. I still say he’ll turn up sooner or later. You know those particular idiots are damn-near as immortal as Rayray is.” Dull, even teeth tipped in poison pink flashed.

“Nnrk!” Hauled up short by the nickname, the eel growled. “We have talked about this!”

His tone rumbled through the cavern, shaking the walls and bringing small bits of rock and invasive coral floating down from the ceiling. An ungainly squawk preceded a dull thud, and a cloud of sand drifted between them, kicked up by the  _ something _ hitting the cave floor.   
  
The something popped its head up, abyssal frills falling into its face, and huffed, blinking sleep from its eyes. Almost turning itself inside out, it tripped over its own tail and limbs. The frills flowing down its sides lit up in bright blue alarm, patterns of curiosity and the occasional ‘ow’ making it difficult to actually parse what it was saying.

“Cora, darling, you really do have to stop sleeping on the ceiling,” the pink match said with gentle amusement,  _ completely ignoring _ the continuing rumbles of malcontent from across the room. “You do officially hold office with me, and how am I supposed to get any of our missions done without you to flank my recklessly, stupidly, beautifully, wonderfully, carelessly insane tail?”

“I’m not done with you.” Their mate growled again, that time rattling a glowfish out of its bowl, and crossed the room with a flick of his thick tail.

Two limbs under Cora’s arms lifted the nudibranch upright, and a quick brush of a hand down the soft parts ensured that the displacement hadn’t seriously injured him. Cora flickered his lights and made a few small gestures with his hands, indicating he had been dreaming, and oh what a dream it had been! Law was there and tiny and surrounded by other tinies and it had just been so--The Moray stilled his hands with a single palm, fond affection in his vicious smile.

“I’m sure it was, dear. Now, please kindly remind your beloved why we don’t use casual nicknames when referring to the Dark King?” His tone was overly sweet.

Immediately, Cora’s lights all flashed on at once! What?! No!! NO NO NO!! Don!! Don no!! Bad! No!!! He darted across the room, Signing frantically. Did he want to be Summoned again!? Summoned to where the Bad Things were?! And the Vampires! And the Sea Witch!! No!! Bad Don!! No!!!

Don could hardly stop laughing, the moment Cora started flashing ‘no’s at him, to the point where when his brother darted over to him the pink nudibranch was bowled over backwards, sliding down the wall with his wheezing top half completely covered by his flowing tendrils. He oozed to the floor in that position, hacking and coughing sand, but it still took another few minutes for him to stop laughing long enough to even consider answering.

“Cora, you know very well that’s not what being Summoned is like. How many times have I gotten Summoned in the last century? How many times have I come back alive?”

“I don’t believe that was the point. Considering every trip to the Abyss is an endeavor that, when last you attempted it, resulted in no less than a week’s worth of bedrest. And that was before we discovered that he’d mounted you. I’m not all that keen on another Perona. Are you, Cora-love?” The Moray rumbled again, not quite as loud as before.

“But we make such  _ pretty babies _ , love!”

Cora flashed in alarm again! Perry was adorable, AND TERRIFYING! And please no? He still had scars from when she was last teething.

Don was finally able to get himself upright and back on the couch again, still occasionally hiccuping a bit of sand out of his gills. “Yes, but pretty and powerful is the point, isn’t it? Regardless, if he Summoned me  _ every time _ I use his nickname, I’d never leave his throne room. AND I get to use it for the next two months. He’s put me back on surface patrol. I’m allowed to call him  _ assface _ if I want to when I have to get my beautiful, beautiful side frills trimmed triangular again.”

Cora made a strangled noise! And only settled again when their mate rubbed down the back of his head and his upper back. Still, the edges of his frills continued to pulse with blue and yellow Concern! Even if he was content to simply lean on the eel’s stronger tail. He wasn’t happy about it. It was mating season! There were stupid sunfish who would attempt to mate Don and have to be eaten later. And sunfish always gave him heartburn.

“Exactly. He’s sending me on surface assignment during mating season, of all times! I get to cuss him out with the most inventive nasty names I can think of for the next two months, and I can do it to his FACE while I’m getting my fins trimmed since it hurts like raw flames.” Don swished his fins pompously, since half of them would be trimmed so he could pass as a particularly colorful manta ray in a few days. “Calling him by his actual nickname is a blessing at this point.”

“Still.” The moray lifted Cora to the couch to cuddle with his twin, “if I could return us to the previous conversation. Your wayward ward has curled himself up in my brother’s coils, and if I know them both the way I think I do, you’ll have more than sunfish and the Dark King to worry about. I could smell the pheromones in the water from a fathom down.”

Don found his teeth flashing again. “So there will be lots of little deepdwellers to love. Maybe I should ask one of the Witches to put up a protection spell on their cave… Nah. Then I wouldn’t have the fun of eating the more annoying ones.”

Cora blinked. Fry?! Lawsy was gonna lay eggs!? FINALLY!!! Don! No eating!!

The black nudibranch glared at his twin.

“The more annoying  _ challengers _ , dear, the  _ challengers _ , not the fry! Good lord! I don’t eat family, you know that!”

Cora sniffed and Signed, Big Mom.

“She didn’t count, she deserved to be eaten. Eating her own fry like that. She tasted so awful. Like rotted whale blubber.” So gross.

Flashing a disgusted puke-green, he shuddered, Signing that Don had been sick for a week after that, and gained almost two pounds in squishy uselessness before the whole ordeal was over.

“Hmm… I have to agree with Cora though, birdy. If you go around eating all of the challengers that annoy you, you’ll end up looking more like a puffer fish than a manta. Remember when you cleared out the Vinsmokes? I don’t think you could fold your tail in half for a year afterwards.” The Moray smiled again, dangerously so, and amused by the thought in spite of what he said, “You know junk food goes straight to your hips.”

“But it was so, so worth it,” Don hummed, patting his layer of squish that had been packed on in preparation of mating season. Mating season he wasn’t going to get to have with his actual mates this year.

Fucking assfaced, dickheaded son of a sailor’s whore.

Somewhere deep. Dark and cold, and hidden away from the rest of the ocean. Something twitched, a sneeze of bubbles jetting out of the crevasse, and eyes in the shadow narrowed. “I probably deserved that.”


End file.
